Boston, MA

Boston, MA

Through its partnership with the Better Buildings Challenge, the City of Boston is committing to a comprehensive plan for reducing energy consumption across a 16 million square foot portfolio of City-held buildings by at least 20 percent by 2023. They will reach this goal through a number of aligned efforts. The Mayor’s Energy Management Board is responsible for progress towards meeting the goals set forth in the City’s Integrated Energy Management Plan and Climate Action Plan. The Renew Boston program and a Municipal Energy Unit (MEU) work to coordinate energy work citywide, including municipal energy consumption. The MEU helps City departments identify, plan, finance, and complete energy efficiency projects across the entire municipal enterprise. The City has implemented an Enterprise Energy Management System (EEMS) that tracks and stores all data relating to the City's energy and water consumption, and has hired a full-time EEMS Administrator to curate the data and present it upon request. The EEMS is the City's primary tool for identifying, implementing, and verifying energy consumption reduction opportunities and savings. The EEMS also enables executives to monitor energy budgets, tracks progress to-date on meeting energy and climate policy goals, and supports municipal compliance with the requirements of the Boston Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance, which was enacted in May, 2013. - See more at: http://www.cityofboston.gov/eeos/reporting/

The City of Boston’s Climate Action Plan has set the community goal to reduce GHG emissions 25% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 and directs City government to prepare for the consequences of global climate change, particularly sea-level rise and heat waves. Greenovate Boston (GreenovateBoston.org), the City’s platform for implementing the Action Plan aims to: reach every Boston resident and business through its programming and outreach efforts, in order to have them understand how their individual actions affect a sustainable future for Boston; engage one-third of Boston residents to take one new, daily climate action per year; and engage businesses constituting one third of Boston’s employees to form their own in-house sustainability teams, or to participate in existing sustainability initiatives.